The Republicans, The Democrats And Grover

Washington — What is a Republican elected official? A Republican elected official is one who says, "I won't raise my constituents' taxes." Asked to elaborate, the Republican elected official explains, "I will keep taxes down to allow the economy to grow and to throw off ever more tax revenue." The Republican believes that the way to pay for government is to let the economy roar ... and to keep spending reasonable.

What is a Democratic elected official? Back in the early 1960s a Democratic elected official, at least when it came to growing the economy, was not much different from a Republican. President John F. Kennedy called for a tax cut to fire up the economy. Things are different now. A Democratic elected official today is a crafty pol whose economic theories are, at best, muzzy-headed. The Democrats have supposedly embraced the middle class. That is, as the mathematician Senator Patty Murray of Washington said on National Public Radio the other day, "98 percent" of the American people. The Democrats promise not to raise taxes on this middle class. They will only raise them on the top two percent, who are mostly scoundrels anyway, and the economy will grow, and all will be well.

One trillion dollars in budget deficits will continue for the next four years, but everyone will be happy. Medicare will continue to pay out. Medicaid and Social Security will continue to pay out. All the lesser entitlement programs will flourish. If we need more money, the Democrats will hit the upper two percent even harder. You wondered where the goose that laid the golden egg might be? Well, for Democrats it is to be found among that two percent. They really believe that all America is with them, save for this fat and lazy two percent.

Back in the days when such geniuses as President Barack Obama held such hope for the Occupy movement — those days were not long ago — the members of that movement and their supporters spoke of the 98 percent of Americans that were supposedly full of hope for the movement. Patty Murray was not the only one to speak of the opulent two percent and the nearly desperate 98 percent. Much of the Democratic Party did also as they embraced us, us 98 percent of Americans who are middle class — not working class, not upper-middle class, not working poor, or the poor.

We are all middle class, except that dratted two percent, and we shall never have a tax increase brought down on us by the Democrats. They promise! Yippee! And if you believe the two percent can pay off the Prophet Obama's twenty-trillion-dollar national debt when he leaves office, you are an ignoramus.

Now comes upon this happy scene of Republicans holding the line on raising taxes and of Democrats talking gibberish about their preposterous 98 percent of Americans all luxuriating in trillion-dollar budgetary overruns, one Grover Norquist. He is a pleasant barbigerous man of sunny disposition given to homespun truths such as "You can either reform government so that it spends less and works better, or you can raise taxes to keep doing all the things we have been doing that haven't worked very well." Conservatives adore him and many independents do too. There are many reasons to adore Grover. He is optimistic, commonsensical, a friend to all Americans who love their freedoms as secured for them in the Constitution. Moreover, he is adamantly opposed to tax increases. He is the author of the tax pledge that, 20 years ago, his organization, Americans for Tax Reform, began asking Capitol Hill politicians to sign. Most Republicans have and by doing so they have distinguished themselves from the Democrats of whom only one has signed the pledge.

Once again — remember attack dog Joe Biden's assault on him in the vice presidential debate — Grover is being made out to be a monster, a tyrant forcing congressional Republicans to stand by their pledge not to raise taxes. Actually he has said in his homespun vernacular, "If you want to go to your voters and say I promised you this, and I'm breaking my promise, you can have that conversation," but "You're not having an argument with me. You've made a commitment to your voters." My guess is that most Republicans will stand by their pledge. They know opposition to tax increases is one of the things that makes them Republicans and that in two more years will continue the Republicans' domination of government.

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator and an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute. He is the author of the book "The Death of Liberalism." To find out more about R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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Comments

Sir;... You said it loud and clear... The republican believes... All they have ever had going for them is ideology, which they beleive though if flies in the face of common sense and reality...
Let me ask you, or ask anyone: What is the point of a growing economy if it leaves a people broken and poor??? At some point, people could ask: IS enough ever enough??? If the economy grows and blows until it crashes, and the crash allows those with the cash to consolidate a lot of gains, pick up capital cheap so they can go and blow again before crashing, so they can do it all again with more capital and less gains to consolidate; but more than that, with less pockets to pick, less resources to destroy, less markets to capture, more of costs, and less of gains, and more and more and more of people depending upon government because their economic means have been removed from them; then what on earth are they working for... Is it all for republican beliefs and principals???...
What they do not want to admit; is that not a part of it works, and now that the bill must be paid, and the promises made to the working people of this land to have their exclusion of, and destruction of communism, will not be redeemed in good faith...If the working people of this land had not been stabbed in the back by their unions and their churches all telling them they could rely upon the rich to deliver the promised goods of capitalism, then capitalism would have died in the thirties...They had the advantage... People would rather dream than think...People would rather have faith for tomorrow than confrontation today...
We have run out of dreams and faith... And now to spare the rich taxation the government will ask us all to take a hit, especially us union people who were called communists simply for asking for a fair wage... Now they will means test social security, and if you have a pot to piss in or a window to toss it outa you will not get your due; but it will not be enough... The government which was created to serve the needs of the people now exists to deny those needs, and on principal, to serve the beliefs of the rich and their republican dogs...
Thanks....Sweeney

Sir;... People are sworn into office once they are elected... Shouldn't people announce that they are foresworn, and cannot possibly do their jobs in that condition, and renounce the one oath, or not take the other...I don't think it possible for me to get elected Dog Catcher... I would not demean myself so much as to tell some one something they may want to hear, and I may believe false, for a vote... If elected, my word would mean too much for me to lie about anything, but the last thing I would swear to uphold, defend and protect, what ever is the proper phrasing of it is; is the US Constitution because if it had ever worked, we would not now be in this mess...That money we are told we owe and never could have paid in good times or bad, has went some where, and went while we faced no major crisises except the end of capitalism and falling profits.. If the only way to ensure high profits for the rich is to lay the expense on the poor who cannot pay it, then the thing is done, dead and gone, and only the idea has to take hold of the dying brain of government...It is not time for another bought election... It is time for a new constitution...
Thanks...Sweeney

" If the only way to ensure high profits for the rich is to lay the expense on the poor who cannot pay it,...."
Here's the thing Sweeney, those who would cut entitlements for the poor, elderly, disabled, and vets, just aren't convinced the poor can't pay it. They view all this as the poor refusing to pay it. That's unpatriotic to the wealthy, the poor not being meek and grateful for crumbs that are thrown to them from their largesse. What's that bible story...oh yeah, Lazarus and the rich man.
The poor being unable to pay is so much harder for them to understand so they have to tell themselves that the poor are "refusing".
Gives them all the more reason to find ways to punish the poor which the Republicans using the Ryan plan are still trying to do saying the poor live too long so for those under 55 today, especially the poor, who usually have worked hard all their lives now have to wait until they're 70 before collecting early SS and 75 for full benefits.
Most under 55 don't know how it is or how it feels to have worked hard all your life, paid into SS, be seventy and poor, tired, sick, can't see without glasses, don't hear so well, need naps during the day, low stamina, poor circulation, body aches from the time they wake up till they go to bed at night, bouts of dizziness, arthritic, but still need to work because they never earned enough in a lifetime to get decent SS $. But they have to turn 75 before they get more money. Anyone who thinks that's ok, I wish it on you. It's not ok.
Speaking of Grover, have you seen the movie "Casino Jack"? If not, give it a look.

Morgan...perhaps you can explain why 2% of the population should pay for the other 98% expenditures. With all of the so called Bush tax cuts in place revenue increased year by year and the deficit was falling. The Government is spending too much not taxing too little.